Reflections on "Living Stewardship" Malachi 3: 8-12; Luke 19: 1-10

This is a week when the sermon preached in the Sanctuary worked better than the one in the Chapel.  It also is a sermon where the printed text below is more an approximation of what was said in the sermon -- I seemed to free lance quite a bit, although all the illustrations and quotes made it into the preached version.

I intentionally opened by moving directly into the Zacchaeus story.  Because I now listen to the sermons regularly, I am trying to be more intentional about changing my preaching pattern.  This week I decided to skip an introduction because I have gotten into the habit of having an introduction each week that reminds everyone what the sermon series is.  

I thought the Zacchaeus section was really good.  The Malachi reference was weak.  In truth, I didn't have the Malachi passage figured out very well until I read it during the Chapel service.  At that point, I had an "aha" moment, but I couldn't rewrite the whole sermon on the fly.  I would love to preach the Malachi passage again at some point and focus on God basically daring the Israelites to test God by tithing and seeing if things will work out when they do.  That could really preach!

I really like the Nouwen quote that I used at the end of the sermon, but it might have been a bit long.  I also discovered from comments people made as they left that Henri Nouwen, who is very familiar to me, is not that familiar to others.  

“Living Stewardship” Stewardship series 2013; FPC, Troy; October 27, 2013; Malachi 3: 8; Luke 19: 1-10

Move 1:  Zacchaeus makes a big change in his life.

            a.  You know the story.

1.      Little guy climbed a sycamore tree to see Jesus.

2.      Little guy who is a chief tax collector.  Notorious kind of guy.

3.      Jesus recognizes him; Jesus recognizes his need; Jesus invites himself over to this house.

3.      Zacchaeus likes what he sees and hears about Jesus.  The presence of Jesus overwhelms him.

4.      He wants to change his life.

5.      He decides to give half of his possessions to the poor and pay back four times to anyone he has defrauded.

            b.  What? He is going to give half his money and repay those he has defrauded four-fold?

1.      Did Jesus ask him to do?

           

2.      The text does not say so.  It seems as if Zacchaeus devised this plan himself.

3.      Can you imagine if you were asked by Zacchaeus to figure out a plan for how he could make concrete changes to his life?  What would you suggest?

4.      The easiest approach might be to just tell Zacchaeus to quit ripping people off beginning now.  His changed life would lead to his being fair from that moment on.

5.      Or maybe Zacchaeus could be pushed to pay back everyone he has cheated.  Clean the slate.

6.      And if he really wanted to do something, pay everyone back and give a tithe to the poor.  A tithe is even biblical, right?

7.      But who among us would advise Zacchaeus to repay those he has defrauded four-fold and give half his possessions to the poor? 

8.      I don't think I would.  Not only does it seem over the top, but someone might have a similar suggestion for me!

c.      But the point is made – when Zacchaeus becomes a disciple of Christ, his life becomes marked by his generosity.

1.      In fact, extravagant generosity.

2.      We do not know what Zacchaeus might have been like a year later, but he seems pretty happy at this moment.

Move 2:  From Zacchaeus' example, we see discipleship connected to generosity.

a.       That’s what it means to be Living stewardship.

1.  Not just a moment when we make a pledge to as part of a church’s stewardship campaign, but a life marked by generosity.

2.      Paul Harvey: On October 3, 1995 during the noon-hour show, Paul Harvey told about a young man of 8 years-old named Ben. It seems that Ben had won a contest at his local McDonald’s. He had won a brand new bike. Everyone in the store was congratulating him on his good fortune. But Ben told his parents that he already had a bike and that he didn’t need two. Ben gave the new bike to a classmate who lived up the street who didn’t have a bike, and due to family medical bills, his parents would not be able to purchase one for him. When the manager of the McDonald’s store heard what Ben had done, she invited Ben and his family to dinner. The manager then presented Ben with a $100 gift certificate good at Wal-Mart. Ben immediately spent that gift on a crash helmet, for his classmate up the street.

b. Our generosity helps us differentiate between the way of the world and our call to discipleship.

                        1.  Dave Ramsay notes that "We buy things we don't even need with money we don't even have to impress people don't even know."  As quoted by Robert Schnase in  Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations (113)

2.       The world teaches accumulation of wealth.

3. Generosity teaches us to give of ourselves and our money to others.

4.  We need an attitude of generosity to propel us out of the world of self-absorption.

c.      Consider this example from Israel. 

1.      The Jordan River feed River feeds two seas – the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea.

2.  The Sea of Galilee is thriving and full of life; the Dead Sea is too salty to have much life.

4.      Difference – River Jordan flows into the Sea of Galilee in the north and flows out of it to the South.

5.      The River Jordan flows into the Dead Sea, but nothing flows out.

6.      When we generously give away the gifts that God has given to us; when those gifts flow through us, if you will, abundant life appears.

7.      When the gifts from God end with us, never shared with others, then abundant life is stifled.

Move 3:  the invitation to be generous is a gift.

            a.  The notion that stewardship rightly focuses on the Christian's need to give rather than the church need to receive is not simply a money-raising strategy but a spiritually driven truth."  Five Practices of Fruitful Congregations, Robert Schnase (112)

                        1. I ran across a study done by the Warwick Business School in England.  It determined that the report also said that happier countries were likely to be bigger givers than those who were simply wealthy, which Andrew Oswald, professor of behavioural science at Warwick Business School, said confirmed the results of "small-scale laboratory experiments which have shown that when people are asked to spend money on others they feel happier than people who are asked to spend money on themselves. This goes against conventional economic wisdom, and indeed human intuition, that says that spending money on ourselves will make us happier." http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/sep/08/good-samaritan-charitable-giving

                        2.  Those results may go against conventional economic wisdom, but I bet Zacchaeus would understand.

b.The prophet Malachi describes how happy the land of the Israelites will be when they give back their tithe to God.

1.      When they are not being good stewards, they miss the important opportunity to give and find abundant life.

2. when they give, they discover the joy that can only come from giving.

Conclusion:   Henri Nouwen:  The Joy of Giving
"What a wonderful mystery this is! Our greatest
fulfillment lies in giving ourselves to others. Although it often seems that people give only to receive, I believe that, beyond all our desires to be appreciated, rewarded and acknowledged, there lies a simple and pure desire to give. I remember how I spent long hours looking in Dutch stores for a birthday gift for my father or mother, simply enjoying being able to give. Our humanity comes to its fullest bloom in giving. We become beautiful people when we give whatever we can give: a smile, a handshake, a kiss, an embrace, a word of love, a present, a part of our life... all of our life. One of the most moving experiences of life is the experience of giving.  It is sad to see that, in our highly competitive and greedy world, we have lost touch with the joy of giving. We often live as if our happiness depended on having much. But I don't know of anyone who is really happy because of what he or she has. True joy, happiness, and inner peace come from the giving of ourselves to others. A happy life is a life for others." Henri Nouwen, The Life of the Beloved

Living stewardship.